What The Heart Wants
by doctorwhofan747
Summary: Bella is ready for a life on her own working in St. Masens Hospital. As the handsome new Dean of Medicine arrives, fate might have something else planned for Bella...
1. Chapter 1  A Quick Run In

"CLEAR!"

Another flatline.

"CLEAR!" I yelled again.

I knew that he was seconds away from a permanent flatline if we didn't do something.

One of my prominent faults is that I often act before I think. This was one of those times. After a second of thinking, I turned the voltage up several notches, and slammed the paddles onto Mr Crowley's chest.

_Beep._

_Beep._

_Beep._

_Beeeeeeep._

We were too late.

"Damn." I murmured. It always got to me when a patient died. I knew I should have been used to it, but it still managed to render me speechless. What a way to celebrate my third year at the hospital.

By this time, I had been working as an intern at St. Masens hospital in Seattle for two years, and a nurse practitioner for the last year.

So far, I had locked myself out of my apartment, spilled coffee over myself and some of the new interns, and now my team and I had this man's death on our minds. I knew there was nothing we could have done to save him; he was too far gone to recover, but it still put a damper on things.

Apart from locking myself out and seeing a man die, my day was turning out to be pretty normal. Until I saw Alice.

"Bella!" Alice practically shrieked with excitement.

"Hey Alice." I replied glumly.

Alice was a physician assistant, and also my best friend. I had known her for the best part of five years, so she knew when something was wrong with me.

"Hey, what's up buttercup?" she asked.

Alice was one of those people who instantly put a smile on your face, which was probably why she was very popular with all of her patients. The fact that she was beautiful probably helped too.

"Oh, the usual. My constant bad luck coming back to haunt me again."

"Well, whatever it is, I know it's nothing that our friends Ben and Jerry can't fix. But anyway, I came over to remind you of the '_urgent_ _meeting'_ that we have to go to." her words dripping with sarcasm.

It took a few seconds for me to remember what she meant. Miss Mallory, the Dean of Medicine was having a leaving party to celebrate her success in her newfound job. In my case, I was celebrating the fact that she was leaving. Miss Lauren Mallory was the rudest, most insensitive person I ever had the displeasure of meeting, and whoever took over from her could not possibly be as bad.

"Bella, there's something I need to tell you. I kinda know who the new Dean of Medicine is: he-"

"Come on guys, we're going to be late!"

Angela had such great timing. Angela Webber was a nice girl, but had the balance and grace of Bambi on ice. If there was something to trip or fall over, she would find it.

As she carefully made her way over to where Alice and I were standing, I was reminded that I had to fill in some urgent file for Mr Crowley's death. It was either go to the party and get my head chewed off for not doing my job, or not go to the party and get my head chewed off for not going. It was a bit of a no-brainer.

"I'll meet you guys up there in a bit: I have to go do some important paperwork."

Alice, who was always trying to get me to loosen up and have fun, immediately protested.

"Aw, but Bella, it's a party! You have to go."

"I'm sorry Alice, but paperwork doesn't write itself."

"It does if you ask it nicely. But anyway, what happened to the days of going to parties and having fun? You never know, you might find a nice guy there…" she said, raising her eyebrows up and down.

Alice was constantly trying to be the perfect matchmaker and set me up. It had been a year since my last serious relationship. James was my high school sweetheart. Everyone who knew us was convinced that we would get married and settle down. I was too. The trouble started when I took up my new position of nurse practitioner and had to work more hours at the hospital. It was the day of our anniversary, so I called in a few favours and went home early to surprise him, little did I know that I was the one in for a surprise. I went home and went to wait in the bedroom and found James already there. _With someone else._

His excuse was that I was never home often enough and that he was lonely. It turned out that this Victoria woman was his secretary and had been seeing him for the best part of a year right under my nose.

I was heartbroken of course. My hopes and expectations were shattered in that one second. The next day, I moved into Alice's apartment and spent the whole day crying until I was sick.

Whenever I thought of James, I felt a string of tears threatening to break free. A year later, and I was no better.

I sighed as I fought back the tears. "No thanks, Alice. I'm really not in the mood for a party, especially seeing as it's for Lauren's benefit."

Seeing my obvious distaste for a social event, Alice finally caved and left to go to the party with Angela.

Grateful for the swift escape, I hurried to my station to finish my work for the day.

As I made my way back, I was starting to question Alice's reasons for letting me off so easily; she never let me get out of social events without a fight.

I went over possibilities in my head, when suddenly I found myself on the floor.

"For God's sake, watch where you're going!" said the mysterious man above me.

"I-I'm so sorry. I was just-"

"Just what? Just walking around like an idiot paying no attention to where you're going and utter disregard to the people around you?"

I was dumbfounded by the man's rudeness, and had no idea what to say to him, so I just stared at him with my mouth wide open. Whilst I was _still_ on the floor

Despite the cruel words that left his mouth, he was rather striking in appearance. I didn't know what it was about him that caught my eye: His ruffled brownish bronze hair? His deep, sea green eyes? Or was it his perfectly shaped jawline?

Whilst in my little daydream, I realised that I should be defending myself, instead of just sitting on the floor like a child, but I just had no idea what to say. However, I found myself getting angrier by the minute and disliking him more and more.

"Well? Get up then! Honestly…"

And more.

"What's your name?" he asked in that awful manner of his.

I tried to speak, but as I tried to force the words out, nothing came.

"Clumsy _**and**_ mute. Looks like I'm going to enjoy working with you." His voice clearly showing his displeasure.

As the words sunk in, I realised he had said 'working _**with**_ you', and everything clicked into place.

"Wait, y-you're-"

"I'm Mr Cullen. St. Masens new Dean of Medicine. "

With that final note, he walked away with a sour look on his face.

I had just run into my new boss. Literally.

One of the things that bothered me, was that he had the same last name as Alice. But there was no way someone as kind-hearted as Alice could be related to someone as cold and bitter as him.

Could there?

_This is my first ever attempt at writing a fanfic, so please let me know your thoughts and let me know if I should carry on or not._

_Thanks so much!_


	2. A Truck, Some Rain, And A Suit

"_Good morning everybody, it's 5:00AM and it looks like it's going to be another wet and windy day for us. Don't forget your umbrella!"_

Man, I really hated that weather guy on the radio. He always sounded so happy even when he said it was going to rain, because he knew too well that he wasn't going to get wet sitting at that nice desk of his, drinking warm coffee and laughing at the unfortunate souls who had to suffer at the hands of nature…

As my luck would have it, I was one of those unfortunate souls who had to suffer the wrath of the weather. I got up and walked over to the window, still not really awake, and saw that that son of a bitch was right again.

Rain. Lots of it.

I cursed profoundly as I got ready for work, and ran to the safety of my warm, dry car.

My car was not what you would call 'reliable'. I got it about 3 years ago, whilst still paying off my student loan, so I couldn't exactly afford to be picky. It's a rusty old Chevy truck that could probably survive a nuclear explosion, but would break down if you went over 50 miles an hour. I loved my car, but it could be a real pain in the ass when it wanted to be.

After the fourth attempt at trying to start my car, I was extremely close to giving up and beating my car with a baseball bat, but after another two or three attempts, it was finally up and running. A promising start to the day.

On my journey to work, I had a lot of time to think. I started thinking about Lauren's party that Alice desperately wanted me to go to. After finishing the paperwork that needed doing, I decided I had better show my face so that I didn't disappoint Alice. If there is one thing worse than owing Alice something, it's disappointing her; she makes it so hard to resist her cute, pixie-like charm! So I showed up for the last half hour in time to hear Lauren's farewell speech saying how she would miss the hospital, but success was beckoning to her. Such modesty.

As I thought about the party, my thoughts suddenly turned to the unpleasant experience I had with a certain Dean of Medicine just before the party. Of course, being the new Dean of Medicine, he had an obligation to attend Lauren's party, so I managed to earn a couple of death stares from him in my poor attempts in hiding from him…

* * *

><p><em>That was it. I had finally had enough of the icy stares from Mr Smiles And Giggles, so I decided to confront Alice about the thoughts that were constantly bugging me. I still couldn't believe that Alice could possibly be of any relation to this psychopath, so I needed her to put my mind at rest.<em>

"_Bella, you made it! I knew you'd come around. No one can resist my charm. Not even you Bella Swan." Said Alice, obviously gloating._

"_Clearly. Listen, Alice? I need to talk to you about something. I was wondering whether-"_

"_Bella! I thought you weren't coming. It's so great that you came! Not that it would matter if you didn't come, because I know you don't normally come to parties. Not that I wouldn't want you to come! I think it's awesome that you came." Mike yammered._

_Mike Newton was like a lost puppy: once he finds someone he likes, he never leaves them alone. Enter my infamous bad luck. Just because I was nice to him on his first day as an intern, he always insists on following me and bringing me coffee or something. There's nothing wrong with free coffee, but Newton made it…creepy. Curse my infinite kindness._

_Oh, almost forgot: Mike has had a crush on me the size of Russia since we first made eye contact. Great._

_Alice, being the amazing person she is, decided to bring a halt to Mike's assault of niceness._

"_Ooookay lover boy, why don't you go talk to Jessica? One of the nurses told me she really likes you…" Alice subtly dropping a hint._

"_Really? Well… I dunno. Whenever I try to talk to her, she looks at me and I forget how to speak! I look like an idiot." He lamented._

"_Well, that was before you had the help of someone with extraordinary social skills. Enter moi." Alice said as she put one arm around Mike and led him over to where Jessica and the other nurses were standing, whilst looking back at me to give me a quick wink._

_Alone again. Naturally._

_I knew it was going to be a while before Alice was going to be free, so I decided to go find the buffet and stuff my face with free food._

_Cue my bad luck again._

_As I turned around, I accidentally walked into a glass of red wine that was attached to a very clenched (very wet) fist._

_Before I opened my eyes to see the damage, I knew right away who it was…_

"_LOOK AT MY SUIT! THIS IS SUIT COST MORE THAN YOU PROBABLY EARN IN A YEAR!"_

_I panicked, and so I started to stutter._

"_I-I-I'm so s-sorry, sir."_

_Recognition flittered across his face._

"_You. You're the one who-"_

_Before had the chance to hear the end of his accusation, I did the only thing I could think of: _

_Run away._

_I ran to my car and hoped that the tears would hold until I was in the safety of my own home._

_No such luck._

_The tears were flowing so hard, I had to stop in a layby after almost crashing into a tree. Or two._

_As the violent sobs started to subside just a little, my phone rang with my ringtone set as Ellie Goulding's 'Your Biggest Mistake'. The irony._

_I answered my phone, trying to stop myself from replying with noises that sounded unnatural._

"_Hello?" I asked quietly._

"_Bella? What the hell happened! One minute you're there, the next I turn round to see you running away in tears!"_

_Of course, it was Alice. Probably making sure I wasn't driving in my unreliable car in the state I was in. Oops._

"_I just. I walked, and there was wine, a-and there was a man, and I-I turned, and then the suit was there, a-and I panicked!"_

_She paused._

"_Wait, you were the one who spilt wine on my brother?" she asked with curiosity._

_That one word managed to kick me out of my guilt-ridden stupor._

_**Brother. **_

_Alice __**was**__ related to that insensitive monster._

"_B-brother?" I asked with amazement._

"_Yeah… I tried to tell you earlier, but-"_

"_You're related to him? B-but you're nice! And he's-"_

"_An idiot? A douchebag? A fun-sucking parasite? Take your pick. I admit he can be… high maintenance, but y'know, he's my brother."_

_I sat in silence._

"_Bella? You there? Hello?"_

"_Sorry Alice, I gotta go." _

"_But Bella-" she said as I hung up._

_I couldn't believe it. _

_My best friend was related to this… this monster, who now happened to be my boss?_

_My bad luck had finally managed to outdo itself._

* * *

><p>I shook my head, as if that would erase the horror that was the night before.<p>

No such luck.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I braced myself for the worst, and told myself that the worst he could was shout at me.

Unless he fired me. That would be much worse.

Keeping a positive outlook, I took my first steps into my living nightmare.

What could possibly go wrong today?

**Ah, Bella... You could have jinxed it!**

**Well, this is Chapter 2 of who knows how many. If you want more, then please review! I just want to say thanks to my friend, Maria. Maria, if you're reading this, you're awesome!**

**Go check out her story:**

** ~ Strange and Beautiful**


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